Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Dr. Abdul el Sayed took a very strict approach to public health restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic six years ago, supporting intense statewide lockdowns and keeping schools shut down. 

El Sayed, the left-wing candidate who won his state’s Democratic primary on Aug. 4, was not a state or local official during the pandemic, but he made frequent media appearances and wrote a plethora of opinion pieces offering his advice on how to respond to the disease outbreak.